Author: todd.lassa

News & Notes

FRI 2/4/22

•The Republican National Committee voted at their national convention in Salt Lake City Friday afternoon to censure Reps. Liz Cheney (R-AZ) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) for their participation as members of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection. Read pundit-at-large Stephen Macaulay's commentary at thehustings.substack.com.

•Russian President Vladimir Putin becomes the first leader in two years to meet with Chinese Premier Xi Jinping, as the Winter Olympics opens in Beijing (NPR).

Despite Omicron, Good Jobs Report – Payroll employment was up by 467,000 jobs in January, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, far greater a number than expected particularly as the omicron variant of COVID-19 shut down large portions of the economy. The unemployment rate rose just 0.1 point, to 4.0%, an indication that a few more people sought jobs in January. The BLS cited growth in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, retail trade and transportation and warehousing as major factors in the jobs growth rate.

•••

Pence Strikes Back? – Believe it when you see it. Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks at a Federalist Society event in Florida Friday where he “will discuss remarks about constitutional principles and the rule of law,” The Hill reports, which is being interpreted to mean he will answer his ex-boss’ constant and continuing bleating about how Pence could have “stopped the steal” when counting Electoral College votes properly cast for Joe Biden, January 6, 2021. 

It’s hard to parse the latest Donald J. Trump attack on Pence, especially with the 45th president’s Twitter account suspended, though Newsweek Thursday reported on Trump ally Roger Stone calling the former Veep “a disloyal POS” on the right-wing messaging platform Telegram. No, we don’t follow that MAGA echo-chamber, either.

According to The Hill, “it’s unclear how far Pence will go.”

Note to the former Veep: Let’s not get carried away just 13 months after January 6 Capitol insurrectionists were ready to hang you for not withholding the Electoral College votes that went for Biden. However, you might have used that time to help try to steer the GOP away from Trump, especially evangelicals. We can assure you that you will not be Trump’s 2024 running mate.

•••

Opportunity to Increase Defense Spending – Defense spending should be folded into a fiscal year 2022 omnibus spending bill in order to send a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin to lay off Ukraine, congress members said at an event held at the Wilson Center Thursday. 

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), the number-two Republican on the Armed Services committee urges President Biden “to get personally involved.” 

“Everybody agrees that working off defense appropriations from a year and a half ago are completely inadequate and sends exactly the wrong signal not only to Vladimir Putin but to our friends and potential adversaries all over the road.”

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) said, “Putin’s thinking, ‘boy they can’t even pass a budget, never going to be able to unite against our actions.’”

The Issue: Good old “kick the can” with an evenly split Senate gumming up the FY22 budget over the White House’s Build Back Better program. The House passed the budget in December, while the Senate has kept the federal government funded with continuing resolutions, the latest expiring just two weeks from today – February 18 – and with the Senate in recess next week.

The $$$: Count on another CR kicking the can further. However, that means the Pentagon will have to work off its FY21 budget of $705.4 billion. The 2022 National Defense Authorization Act would budget $768.1 billion, which is $25 billion more than the White House had proposed.

•••

Unionization South of the Border -- “As workers, we are stronger when we can speak with one voice – and we are stronger when our fellow workers around the world can do the same.” That’s U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh, on the occasion of this week’s election at General Motors’ Silao, Mexico assembly plant, where the National Independent Auto Workers’ Union (SINTTIA) received the majority of votes to represent factory workers where pickup trucks are built. (The votes are still to be certified, but highly likely.)

The election was overseen by Mexico’s Federal Center for Conciliation and Labor Registration. Said Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs Thea M. Lee, “This election at the Silao General Motors’ plant represents a landmark achievement for the newly created Federal Center in ensuring a free and fair election for workers under Mexico’s new labor justice system. The Federal Center’s administration of this election helped to ensure a fair and transparent process.” 

Note: President Joe Biden’s support of organized labor is well and widely known. But who knew that it extends as far as it evidently does?

According to the Labor Department, “In July 2021, the U.S. and Mexico announced an unprecedented comprehensive plan to remediate a past denial of the rights of freedom of association and collective bargaining rights for workers at the same facility under the USMCA [United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement].”

--Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Charles Dervarics

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THU 2/3/22

•ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was killed following a U.S. operation in northwest Syria. “All Americans have returned safely from the operation,” President Biden said (NYT). UPDATE: Biden says al-Qurayshi blew himself up, taking along several members of his family, to avoid being taken alive by U.S. special forces (NPR).

•Biden meets with police and community violence intervention groups in New York City today in an effort to lobby Congress to allocate an additional $500 million to combat violence in the fiscal 2022 spending package (Roll Call).

•It appears White House agenda items will be held up on Capitol Hill for four to six weeks, the amount of time Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) is expected to need to recover from a stroke (The Hill).

More than Coup Practice –The efforts that followed Donald Trump’s re-election defeat weren’t successful, but it was not for lack of trying. Descriptions of the former president’s henchmen (and women, we haven’t forgotten you, Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis) plotting to use fake alternate electors, rogues within the Defense Department – which even former Trump attorney and future masked singer Rudy Giuliani rejected – or the Department of Homeland Security have been leaking out over the past week. 

Latest is from The Washington Post, which Thursday revealed a Trump White House memo suggesting the National Security Agency and the Defense Department sift through raw electronic communications in search of proof that foreign powers had interfered in the presidential election. Such proof (assuming, of course, that it actually existed) would “support next steps to defend the Constitution in a manner superior to current civilian-only judicial remedies,” says the memo circulated December 18, 2020 “among Trump allies.”

Note: No doubt those interfering countries would not include Russia or any other authoritarian-led nation whose leaders Trump admires.

•••

Dog-Whistle for Authoritarianism – If you thought the Republican Party’s love affair with Russia’s longtime authoritarian leader President Vladimir Putin came and went with the Trump administration, you have not been paying attention. Now comes Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), he of the fist-pump proffered to January 6 Capitol insurrectionists, who is presuming to tell the president – the one who actually won the election -- to back off on talk about the Ukraine joining NATO. 

Specifically, The Hill reports, in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Hawley says President Biden should abandon support for Ukraine’s eventual admission to the NATO -- even though neither Biden nor anyone else on our side is talking about Ukraine entering NATO.  

White House React: This prompted White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki to admonish; “If you are digesting Russian information and parroting Russian talking points you are not aligned with longstanding bipartisan American values, which is to stand up for the sovereignty of countries like Ukraine, but others.”

It’s OK, get personal: Later, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), the 1/6 House Select Committee member who apparently has been disinvited to this weekend’s Republican National Committee annual meeting in Salt Lake City, tweeted “I hate to be so personal, but Hawley is one of the worst human beings, and self egrandizing (sic) con artists. When Trump goes down I certainly hope this will be layed (sic-after all, this is a tweet) in the open for all to see, and be ashamed of.” 

Note: Hawley is presuming to tell the president to not do something that he isn’t doing. All part of the “let’s make stuff up and thereby magically make it real” approach that served Trump so well for so long.

•••

The Key is Timing – The Senate goes on recess today, with just 15 days before federal agencies run out of cash, Punchbowl News reports. There will also be no action before the Senate returns in one week on sanctions against Russia. As for the omnibus spending bill funding the federal government, it is time, once again, for another continuing resolution.

•••

About Those Red Social Sites — Remember the Trumpian-driven outrage about “mainstream” social media — like Twitter and Facebook? Remember how there would be a phalanx of right-wing alternatives that would bury what eventually became outlets that banned the lies and misinformation being promulgated by Trump and his allies? It turns out that those alternatives had their moment. Publishers Daily, citing data from TheRighting, a site that monitors website traffic, found that several sites had serious declines in unique visitors in December 2021 compared with the year earlier.

As in Newsmax down 36%, The Blaze down 23%, Washington Examiner down 56%, Brietbart down 52%, and The Federalist down 49%.

However, it is not that there weren’t some gains, as it found that four of the 20 sites it tracks have increased visitors: The Daily Signal, NewsBusters, The Daily Wire and Townhall.

To be fair: it was also calculated that The Washington Post, HuffPost, CNN, and The New York Times all saw declines.

Note: Traffic on DonaldJTrump.com was down 69%.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

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WED 2/2/22

•President Biden is sending about 2,000 U.S. troops to Poland, and is shifting about 1,000 troops from Germany to Romania to support NATO as Russian troops gather near Ukraine’s border, the Pentagon has announced (AP).

•OPEC meets today to discuss production levels of crude oil, which has hit a seven-year price high of about $90 per barrel due to high demand (NPR).

•President Biden will announce revival of the “cancer moonshot” to boost prevention, detection and treatment, an initiative he led while serving as vice president to Barack Obama (WaPo).

And Now there are 49 – Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) underwent brain surgery after suffering a stroke Monday, Punchbowl News reports. With no timetable for his return, the Democrat’s 50-plus-veep majority in the Senate is on hold as Luhan recovers in his home state, and there are questions whether the chamber will pass anything significant before President Biden’s State of the Union speech March 1. 

Note: Best the White House can hope for is bipartisan Senate support for small “chunks” of the Build Back Better program, but of course the focus will be on Biden’s replacement for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. Politico reports that ranking minority member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Lindsay Graham (R-SC) is ready to support Biden’s choice. It’s worth noting that Lujan is not on that committee, so his absence will not be a factor in the committee’s vote to send the nominee to the Senate.

•••

Some Republicans Have a Memory Problem — Some Republicans (e.g., Susan Collins of Maine) have expressed concern over Joe Biden’s announcement while he was a candidate that he would appoint a Black woman to the Supreme Court, considering it to be politicizing the judicial branch.

It is worth remembering that in May 2016 Donald Trump, who was not at that time the Republican nominee, released a list of 11 potential nominees to the Court, and a second list of 10 in September 2016 (per SCOTUSblog).

Note: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said it was “offensive” for Biden to zero in on a Black woman as nominee because Black women constitute about 6% of the U.S. population, according to Politico Playbook. Cruz shouldn’t be too smug: the population of Texas is approximately 8.9% of that of the entire country, so one wonders about the statistical viability of anything he has to say about anything.

•••

Trump’s Next Rally is in Salt Lake City – Donald J. Trump’s two-time campaign advisor, David Boise, is expected to introduce a resolution to expel Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) from this weekend’s annual convention of the Republican National Committee in Salt Lake City, The Washington Post reports. Boise also serves as the RNC’s national committee member from Maryland.

Note: Boise seeks to punish Cheney and Kinzinger for voting in favor of Trump’s second impeachment, and of course they are the only Republicans who serve on the House of Representatives’ Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection. Kinzinger is retiring from the House after the current term, while Cheney faces Trump’s endorsed primary challenger for this November midterms. Meanwhile, House Republicans who voted to oppose electors for Joe Biden January 6 are having no problems raising sufficient funds for their re-election this year, Roll Call reports. Trump has effectively cemented his control of the GOP at least through the year, and Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) should continue to worry about the former president becoming House Speaker if the party wins a majority there in November.

--Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Nic Woods

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Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

The Right Side

Read commentary here on the center-column political news and analysis from the conservative perspective.

Columns on President Biden’s second year in the White House:

•“Pivot to the Center” by Bryan Williams.

•“Everyday People” by Stephen Macaulay

Send your own comments for posting in the left or right columns on recent center columns, including:

•“Biden Breaking Build Back Better.”

•“Trump’s Coup Must be Stopped.”

Email comments for the left or right column to editors@thehustings.news.

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What’s Left

In this column: Reader comment on Stephen Macaulay’s column in The Gray Area, “Tucker Carlson Probably Doesn’t Like Borscht, Either” …PLUS: Jim McCraw and Eric Blair ruminate on how President Biden can save his second year in office.

•Submit your comments for the left or right column to editors@thehustings.news.

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News & Notes

TUE 2/1/22

Wagging for Peace? – Great Britain Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in Kyiv to meet directly with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in an effort to diffuse the apparently pending invasion by an estimated 130,000-plus Russian troops gathered along its eastern border and to the north in Belarus. While U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken continues to meet with his Kremlin counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, to tamp down tensions in the region, the U.K.’s leader has headed over there himself as he faces calls for resignation back in London, over lavish “COVID-19 lockdown” parties he attended. 

Wagging the dog?: Certainly that’s what it looks like, and it will take a big diplomatic victory for Johnson to overcome outrage over the lockdown parties. But Johnson, who was aligned with Donald J. Trump’s presidency as the prime minister who fought for and administered the nationalistic Brexit withdrawal from the European Union, is now in Kyiv “to show support” to Ukraine, according to NPR’s Morning Edition. The U.K. “will continue to uphold Ukrainian sovereignty even as Russia seeks to destroy it,” Johnson said. 

Back here at home, factions of Trump’s GOP are taking an isolationist position at best – pro-Russia at worst -- over the crisis. 

•••

Uncovering More of Trump’s Coup Attempt – Six weeks after the November 2020 election, then-President Trump directed his attorney, former 9/11 hero Rudy Giuliani, to call the Department of Homeland Security to see whether he could have the department legally take control of voting machines in swing states whose Electoral College votes were to go to Joseph R. Biden, The New York Times reports, citing three sources. 

Giuliani did, but Homeland Security’s acting deputy director told the former New York City mayor he lacked authority to audit or impound the machines. The alleged plot quashed Team Trump’s third attempt to seize the machines, which included deploying the military and using the Justice Department, a scheme then-Attorney Gen. William Barr immediately “shot down,” according to the NYT’s report.

Note: Between the interviews with former Trump administration advisors and officials willing to talk to the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection, and subpoenas issued to those who won’t turn, the panel appears to be building a strong case against the ex-president. But Trump’s rally in Houston last weekend serves as warning he is not going down without a fight, with help of his Republican supporters on Capitol Hill as well as in his rallies, culminating in another attempt in 2024.

•••

Sinema Sinking — Sen. Krysten Sinema (D-AZ) is not doing particularly well among Arizona Democrats according to a recent Morning Consult poll conducted December 21, 2021 to January 20, 2022, and compared with results from another poll taken January 21 to February 20, 2021.

Last year 67% of Democratic voters approved of the senator. The most-recent poll has her at 43%.

Perhaps it comes as no surprise that her approval rating among Republicans last year was 35%. It is now at 55%.

Yes, Sinema is more popular among Republicans than Democrats in her home state.

The shift among Independents isn’t particularly notable: 39% approval last year; 35% approval this year.

Sinema’s numbers are quite a contrast with her fellow Democratic senator from Arizona, Mark Kelly. His early 2021 approval rating among Democrats was 81%. In the latest poll it is 80%.

Similarly, 20% of Republicans approved of him in the earlier poll and 19% do in the most recent.

As for Independents there is seemingly a shift from Sinema to Kelly. He was at 36% in last year’s poll and is now at 39%.

--Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Charles Dervarics

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Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

In the Left Column

Scroll down for reader comment on Stephen Macaulay’s commentary from thehustings.substack.com, now in The Gray Area, “Tucker Carlson Probably Doesn’t Like Borscht, Either.” 

Submit your own comment on Macaulay’s column, or on any news or commentary, including News & Notes by email to editors@thehustings.news. Please keep it civil and tell us whether you consider yourself “left” or “right.”

Also in this column …

Contributing pundits on President Biden’s second year in office, ahead:

•”Cut Joe Biden Some Slack” by Jim McCraw.

•”Biden Must Move Past His Agenda,” by Eric Blair.

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News & Notes

MON 1/31/22

•U.S. and Russian diplomats meet at the United Nations in New York today as more than 100,000 troops Russia have amassed near the Ukraine border. Russia denies it intends to launch an attack but has made demands the U.S. and NATO deem “impossible”: That NATO stop deployment of weapons, roll back forces elsewhere in Eastern Europe and assure that Ukraine not be allowed to join the alliance. (ABC News.)

Consumers Have That Sinking Feeling — The Index of Consumer Sentiment as measured by the University of Michigan is like the temperature in Michigan right now: Low. Specifically, the number is 67.2%. According to Dr. Richard Curtain, chief economist for the study, this is the “lowest level since November 2011.” And if that’s not enough to disturb your Monday morning, here’s more from Curtain: “Overall confidence in government economic policies is at its lowest level since 2014, and the major geopolitical risks may add to the pandemic active confrontation with other countries.

“Although the primary concern is rising inflation and falling real incomes, consumers may misinterpret the Fed’s policy moves to slow the economy as part of the problem rather than part of the solution.”

Note: It comes back to messaging. While there has been solid economic growth and increases in employment, the messaging from not only the White House but Congress has been weak at best. Go to a grocery store and see entire sections of shelves with nothing on them and that’s what the everyday American uses to calibrate what’s going on. Go to a car dealership and see the salesperson with an even more-smug look on his or her face than they did pre-pandemic because they know that anyone who wants a vehicle is going to be paying sticker — and likely more. That’s what average Americans are up against.

•••

Trump Reveals Political Platform for November 2024 – In the final days of his presidency, Donald J. Trump granted 114 pardons (ranging from Steve Bannon to Lil Wayne). During his administration there were a total 143 pardons. Seems like there is potential for that number to rise. At his latest MAGA rally in Houston Saturday ex-President Trump said: “If I run and if I win, we will treat those people from January 6 fairly,” Politico reports. “And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons, because they are being treated so unfairly.”

Note: “If I win” seems a rare point of magnanimity for the former president, who had warned previous to the November 2020 presidential election that he would accept the results only if he were the victor. This latest comment smacks of Trump trying to shore up support among his hard-core supporters, including most of more than 725, and counting, January 6 rioters who have been charged in the insurrection. Most of those who plead or are found guilty will have served misdemeanor sentences by then, Politico reports. 

•••

1/6 Panel Subpoenas 14 Over “Fake” Slates – Fourteen Republicans from seven states that voted for Joe Biden in the November 2020 presidential election received subpoenas Friday over for allegedly submitting fake slates for former President Trump to Congress to delay or block January 6 certification of Biden’s victory. The House Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection demands that chairpersons and secretaries for alternative electors in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin produce documents and appear for a deposition in February, Roll Call reports.

Note: Though considered a “failed” coup and setup for Trump’s triumphant return to the White House after the November 2024 presidential election, it seems the attempt by pro-Trump Republicans was well-organized in a relatively short time – the alternative electors apparently met December 14, 2020 to carry out a scheme allegedly being organized by Trump’s closest advisors.

--Edited by Gary S. Vasilash and Todd Lassa

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Please email comments to editors@thehustings.news.

In the Right Column

Read Stephen Macaulay’s commentary from thehustings.substack.com, now in The Gray Area, “Tucker Carlson Probably Doesn’t Like Borscht, Either.” Reader counterpoint on Macaulay’s comments appears in the left column of this page. Scroll down to read it and join the conversation by emailing editors@thehustings.news.

Also in this column…

Right-column pundits on President Biden’s second year in office, ahead:

•”Pivot to the Center” by Bryan Williams.

•”Everyday People” by pundit-at-large Stephen Macaulay.

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Reader Comment

Re: "Tucker Carlson Probably Doesn't Like Borscht, Either," thehustings.substack.com, January 28 --

There are plenty of reasons to avoid a military response to Russia’s saber rattling on its border with Ukraine, including an aversion to starting World War III. The fact that Tucker Carlson has spawned four children isn’t among them. Putin is one scary bastard and our most recent president spent his entire term kissing his ass. That may not have caused the situation we’re in now, but it sure didn’t help. As usual, Republicans leave a mess and the adults in the room have to figure out a way to resolve it. This time it may cost a whole lot of lives.

--Siobhan Dugan

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Also in this column...

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) plans to take up pieces of the White House’s $2-trillion-ish Build Back Better plan as early as the week of January 31. Read “Biden Breaking Build Back Better” in the center column below by scrolling down past News & Notes.

In this left column, scroll down using the scroll bar on the far right to read “Cut Joe Biden Some Slack” by Jim McCraw, and scroll down further to read “Biden Must Move Past His Agenda” by Eric Blair.

Send your own comments to editors@thehustings.news and let us know whether you belong in the left or right column.

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News & Notes

FRI 1/28/22

•A bridge in a Pittsburgh park collapsed early Friday morning, where President Biden will appear today to tout his bipartisan infrastructure bill and the latest economic growth figures, and talk up his agenda for the year ahead. Two injuries have been reported, so far, NPR reports.

•Read Stephen Macaulay's commentary, "Tucker Carlson Probably Doesn't Like Borscht, Either" on our Substack page, at https://thehustings.substack.com.

Russia Amps Up the Arrogance -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Russian radio said that if the NATO countries don’t stop the expansion of NATO membership — a.k.a., keep Ukraine from getting in — Russia would “retaliate,” The Washington Post reports. Presumably that retaliation would have something to do with the more than 100,000 troops on the eastern border of Ukraine as well as the Russian warships in the Black Sea, which is located to the south of Ukraine.

Note: Remember when there was Communist propaganda that showed well-fed capitalists forcing their will on weaker countries and how Marxism-Leninism would make everything a paradise? Here we have the Russians threatening a free country because, well, it wants to be free. NATO isn’t out there trying to collect nations. Countries essentially file to join NATO which, last we checked, was not an organization meant to go on the offensive. But what is more offensive than a bully, which the Russian government clearly is?

•••

Race to Replace Breyer is On – As Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer announced at the White House his retirement at the end of the court’s term in late June, President Biden reiterated his promise to nominate its first Black woman, promising to reveal his choice in February. The Washington Post reports the administration wants to complete the confirmation process with the Senate in as little as four weeks.

The Key is Timing: Since 1975, the average number of days from nomination to Senate confirmation is 68 days, says USA Today, citing the Congressional Research Service. Nomination to confirmation for Justice Amy Coney Barrett, ex-President Trump’s last of three nominees, took just 27 days. 

Note: Even if the Biden administration finds it can solidly count on the necessary support of Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Krysten Sinema (D-AZ) in confirming his nominee, look for GOP Senate leadership to do what it can to slow the process. For the record, Breyer says he will stay on past the current SCOTUS term if necessary until his replacement is seated on the bench. Can Senate Republicans put the brakes on well into the midterm election campaigns?

•••

WARNING: Unvaccinated Palin Sighting – Unvaccinated, COVID-19-infected former vice-presidential candidate and ex-Alaska governor Sara Palin was spotted dining outdoors at a New York City restaurant Wednesday, The New York Timesreports. Palin had tested positive for the coronavirus earlier in the week, and was required to isolate for at least five days, according to federal guidance.

But the guidance does not impose any penalties on individuals, the Times says. Rather, her alleged violation could result in a $1,000 fine for the business owner. 

A manager for the Upper East side restaurant, Elio’s, said in a statement that Palin returned Wednesday to “apologize for the fracas around her previous visit,” which was the previous Saturday, when she reportedly signed autographs, unmasked. But the apology apparently came with breadsticks, because she supped again at that restaurant. According to the Gothamist, Palin dined Tuesday night at Campagnola. 

Note: It is interesting to note that while Palin clearly has a taste for Italian food, it is a good thing for her that New York City has it because she would have a problem with Italy. According to the U.S. State Department:

•Beginning on December 25, 2021 until January 31, 2022 the use of masks outdoors is mandatory on the entire Italian territory. 

•From December 25, 2021 until March 31, 2022, the use of more protective FFP2/KN95 masks is mandatory to participate in all indoor and outdoor cultural and recreational events, and on all transportation. 

•The Italian government extended the Covid-19 state of emergency until March 31, 2022.

•From January 8, 2022 until June 15, 2022, all individuals above 50 years of age, including foreigners resident in Italy, will be required to be vaccinated. (Palin is 57.)

--Edited by Gary S. Vasilash and Todd Lassa

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THU 1/27/22

•Just when you thought it was safe to take off the mask, there are reports of a new omicron variant of COVID-19 spreading across Asia and Europe (NPR).

Rebound vs. Omicron – Real gross domestic product grew at the annual rate of 6.9% in the fourth quarter of 2021, after a 2.3% increase in the third quarter, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis reports. This marks the greatest national growth since 1984, and it overcame the COVID-19 omicron variant that put the brakes on economic growth late in the quarter. 

Real GDP grew 5.7% for all of 2021, compared with a 2.3% increase for 2020, and the highest since 1984, President Reagan’s fourth year in office. 

Note: Continuing this level of growth after the omicron variant diminishes could go a long way to raise President Biden’s poll numbers from the basement. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve Bank yesterday indicated plans to raise interest rates from near-zero by March.

•••

Breyer to Announce Retirement Today – All that’s left is for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to reveal the rhetoric he will use to try to stymie President Biden’s nominee to replace Justice Stephen G. Breyer on the U.S. Supreme Court. Breyer, 83, was to formally announce his retirement Thursday to commence with end of the current session June 30. 

Still, Senate Democrats have a thin upper hand in the matter. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is said to plan a quick Senate approval process in the form of Republicans’ seating just before the November 2020 presidential election of Justice Amy Coney Barrett in roughly one month, according to NPR’s Morning Edition.

After word of Breyer’s impending retirement Wednesday, Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC), ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, evoked the “elections have consequences” chant, saying Democrats “will have the power to replace Justice Breyer without one Republican vote in support,” according to the New York Post.

Democrats have been lobbying Breyer to retire while they have a majority, however thin, in the Senate. Breyer, who is otherwise known for his ability to push the court toward reaching consensus on major cases has been frustrated on that front over the past year, according to NPR’s Nina Totenberg.

Top candidates: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, 51, is a former clerk to Breyer on the Supreme Court who was confirmed last June to the U.S. Court of Appeals to the D.C. Circuit. Jackson is a former federal public defender who would be the first defense attorney on a court with four former prosecutors, Totenberg noted on NPR’s All Things Considered.

California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger is a former Department of Justice official representing the government before SCOTUS as deputy solicitor general, according to The Washington Post. Kruger, 45, has the advantage, perhaps, of being appointed to the Justice Department during the administration of President George W. Bush, and stayed on during the Obama administration.

Either choice would fulfill Biden’s promise to appoint the first Black woman to SCOTUS.

Wacky Right-Wing scenario – Fox News first floated the following moderate conservative fantasy Wednesday, soon after repeated, seriously, by The Bulwark editor-at-large Bill Kristol: Court overturns Roe v. Wade June 30, Biden names Vice President Kamala Harris to replace Breyer, and names Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) her replacement. 

The consequences: Given that people get lifetime appointments to the Court, were Jackson or Kruger to be approved and then stayed on the bench until they were 83, they would be there until 2054 or 2060, respectively.

BTW: Happy birthday to Chief Justice John Roberts, who turns 67 today.

•••

Cold War Update – The U.S. and its Western allies responded to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demands Wednesday regarding the Kremlin’s aggression near the Ukraine border, but didn’t agree to his demand of reassurance that Ukraine be kept out of NATO, The Washington Post reports. A Kremlin spokesman responded by warning that tensions would be “seriously complicated” if the demand over NATO is not met.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

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Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

The Right Stuff

•Comment on Stephen Macaulay's Substack column on Tucker Carlson's isolationist position on Russia's aggression to the Ukraine at https://thehustings.substack.com or email editors@thehustings.news.

Also in this column ...

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) plans to take up pieces of the White House’s $2-trillion-ish Build Back Better plan as early as the week of January 31. Read “Biden Breaking Build Back Better” in the center column below by scrolling down past News & Notes.

In this right column, scroll down using the scroll bar on the far right to read “Pivot to the Center” by Bryan Williams, and scroll down further to read “Everyday People” by Stephen Macaulay.

Send your own comments to editors@thehustings.news and let us know whether you belong in the left or right column.

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Cut Joe Biden Some Slack

By Jim McCraw

Joe Biden took the oath of office just two weeks after the Capitol riot, the previous president’s attempt to steal the election, and he has been fighting an uphill battle ever since.

First, he has been fighting a Republican opposition that has, over time, become obstructionist, pure and simple.  

Second, against not one, but two variants of the Covid-19 virous. With a razor-thin majority in the Senate, he ran into obstruction over Build Back Better and voting rights. Then inflation hit gas stations and grocery stores.  Last week, the stock market tanked after months of bull-market performance. And it’s all Joe’s fault. Just ask the Republicans, whose only idea and platform for 2024 is to re-elect Donald Trump.

The last president who had to deal with a pandemic was Woodrow Wilson, more than a century ago, when the population was 105 million, and there was no radio, no TV, no internet, and no CDC.  Now, with 330 million citizens and modern communications, Biden faces conspiracy theories keeping a large chunk of the population unvaccinated. 

On top of all the other negatives piled on the Biden administration comes Vladimir Putin with territorial claims against Ukraine. Biden’s loudmouth predecessor didn’t have anything like this heaped upon him in his Year One, and he didn’t do anything constructive anyway. The American public needs to cut Joe Biden some slack, and it sure would be nice if some Republicans stopped their obstructionism and help get things done.

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Scroll down to read the center column for this debate; “Biden Breaks Build Back Better.” To add your comments to this page, email editors@thehustings.news

News & Notes

WED 1/26/22

•A panel of three federal judges has rejected Alabama’s latest congressional map and ordered a new one with a second district in which Black voters have a better chance of electing the House candidate of their choice (Roll Call).

•In a move gun-rights advocates will certainly take to the courts, San Jose’s city council “overwhelmingly” approved a law Tuesday to require gun owners to carry liability insurance (Los Angeles Times).

•Scroll down to read “Biden Breaking Build Back Better”, the center column to “Cut Joe Biden Some Slack” (left) and “Pivot to the Center” (right).

Still a Cold War, Not a Hot War – The White House is preparing extensive sanctions and trade authority, previously provided by Congress, to punish Russia for its aggression toward Ukraine, Roll Call reports. The sanctions go “well beyond” those the U.S. imposed against the Kremlin after Russia’s 2014 attack on the Crimea, but the White House says it will not publicly detail what is being considered so it can maintain its diplomatic leverage. 

Meanwhile, diplomats from France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine are meeting Wednesday in Paris to resuscitate a stalled peace process, The Washington Post reports, as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has objected to delivery of 79 tons of arms to Ukraine from Western nations.

Note: Russia is estimated to have about 127,000 of its troops gathered on the Ukrainian border, including along the Belarus border about 100 miles north of Kyiv, NPR reports, but some analysts suggest it’s not enough for a full-out invasion. Is a side benefit for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression influence over our midterm elections this November? Just, as Fox News’ Tucker Carlson might say, asking.

On that note: Carlson said on his show the U.S. has no reason to take sides on Russia versus the Ukraine, and former President Trump’s onetime national security advisor, Michael Flynn, defended Putin in an op-ed in a far-right journal, writing that “Biden might get hundreds of millions killed over Ukraine.” Clearly, Carlson and Flynn miss the warm Trump-Putin relationship.

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Low-Sodium Build Back Better – Senate Democrats are likely to remove the proposal to raise the cap on state and local tax deductions (SALT) from the White House’s Build Back Better proposal when they return to Capitol Hill next week, The Hillreports. The SALT cap is one of Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) top priorities, but members of his caucus believe the provision is too costly and would most benefit wealthy suburbanites in blue states. Such as New York. 

Democrats involved in negotiations with key holdout Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) “blew up” the SALT cap provision, the report says. 

Note: President Biden already has said he will break up his Build Back Better social infrastructure program, with a current price tag of somewhere between $1.75- and $2 trillion into smaller “chunks.” Raising the SALT cap appears to be an easy cut despite Schumer’s support, compared with, say, the child tax credit. The bigger surprise may be how eager Senate Democrats are to take up the package when they return to Capitol Hill next week, after a fruitless end to negotiations before the end of 2021.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Charles Dervarics

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TUE 1/25/22

•The Federal Reserve begins a two-day policy meeting to discuss increasing interest rates in light of booming inflation.

•Scroll past News & Notes to read “Biden Breaking Build Back Better” in the center column and read responses on the left and right.

Putin Triggers U.S. Military – The Pentagon has ordered 8,500 troops on high alert for potential deployment, not to Ukraine, but to NATO bases elsewhere in Eastern Europe as Russian President Vladimir Putin takes advantage of Western panic over his amassing more than 100,000 troops on Ukraine’s eastern border (AP). 

“Putin’s decision on invading Ukraine will depend on what side of the bed he wakes up on,” President Biden said Monday. 

Known Unknowns: Kremlinologists still hold out the possibility that Putin is simply stirring up NATO, which he wants out of the former Eastern Bloc, and the U.S., where Biden is still dealing with deep criticism for his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. 

But invading all of Ukraine also will recall for Russians the nine disastrous years Soviet Russia spent in Afghanistan in the 1970s and 1980s, well before our own disastrous 20 years in the country. 

“I don’t believe that full invasion is in his plans,” Nina Khruscheva, author and professor at The New School, and yes, great-granddaughter of the late Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev, told NPR’s Morning Edition Tuesday. “If he were to invade it wouldn’t be that open. … I think it would be more of a blackmail-brinksmanship.”

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About Those 11,780 Votes – Judges on Fulton County’s Superior Court Bench gave District Attorney Fani Willis the green light for a special grand jury to investigate ex-President Trump’s efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential election resultsThe Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. 

A special grand jury will be impaneled May 2, according to the report, and can convene for a period “not to exceed 12 months,” chief judge Christopher S. Brasher, wrote in informing Willis of the court’s ruling last week.

Note: The grand jury investigation almost certainly will affect the Democratic-Republican balance in the U.S. Senate, where Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) faces re-election in this fall’s midterms. Warnock’s challenger will be determined in the state’s May 22 primaries, and Trump’s hand-picked candidate is former New Jersey Generals (the Trump-owned USFL team) running back Herschel Walker, and Georgia voters will be watching for news from the grand jury for those six months between the primary and midterms. 

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People Across U.S. Clutch Their Pearls Monday — President Joe Biden met with the White House Competition Council Monday to talk about efforts it has made so far to improve competitiveness in the economy. Among the topics discussed were:

  • FDA-proposed rules that would make hearing aids available over the counter;
  • FTC commitments to ramp up enforcement on behalf of “right-to-repair” rules;
  • DOJ actions to challenge or block mergers that would have negative impacts on the economy.

But of course, you probably know none of that. You do know that Biden referred to Peter Doocy of Fox News as “a stupid son of a bitch.”

Note: While it is absolutely indecorous for the president of the United States to use language considered to be common, one could make the argument that Donald Trump’s litany of verbal abuses is something that will be hard for any 10 presidents to trump, even if they each spent hours before getting in front of a microphone slamming boilermakers.

Perhaps this will help Biden’s numbers with some Republicans and Independents who support(ed) Trump because of his alleged shoot-from-the-hip approach.

--Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Nic Woods

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MON 1/124/22

•Scroll down to read “Biden Breaking Build Back Better” in the center, and columns by Eric Blair (left) and Stephen Macaulay (right). New opinion pieces on the center column are on the left and right of this page.

•NASA’s $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope, replacement for the Hubble, is scheduled today to reach its destination about 1 million miles from Earth, where it will study the oldest light in the universe (NPR).

•COVID-19 cases are beginning to fall nationwide, although not yet in parts of the South and West. The nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told ABC News This Week Sunday that going into February, “it is very likely that most of the states in the country will have turned around with their peak and are starting to come down,” with fewer cases and hospitalizations.

U.S. Troops into Former Eastern Bloc – President Biden may send up to 5,000 U.S. troops into NATO’s Eastern Europe countries as Russia amasses more than 100,000 of its troops along Ukraine’s eastern border, NPR’s Morning Edition reports.The U.S. State Department has warned American citizens, including its own non-essential personnel, to leave the country. On Saturday, a British government communique warned that the Kremlin was planning to install a puppet regime into the Kyiv, according to The New York Times.

Ukraine’s Western Border: Russian President Vladimir Putin is anxious to prevent the spread of NATO’s influence in the former Eastern Bloc as he tries to get the U.S.S.R. band together again, minus the Marxist ideology. NATO nations covering Ukraine’s western and northwestern border are Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. Even after talks between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Kremlin counterpart, Sergey Lavrov last weekend, the White House has committed to providing arms and military aid to Ukraine.

Known Unknown: The communique from the U.K.’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office named four men who held senior positions in the Ukrainian government, the NYT says, as potential leaders in a puppet government. All four “worked in proximity” with Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign manager, the NYT says. Manafort also worked as campaign manager to former Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych, the Kremlin’s last puppet there. Donald J. Trump pardoned Manafort during his last days in the White House, just before Christmas 2020, for a conviction in an investigation into the alleged Russian meddling of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

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As the AG Turns – The House of Representatives Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection has already had “conversations” with ex-President Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, the panel’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) revealed on CBS News’ Face the Nation Sunday. Once derided as working as Trump’s attorney rather than as head of the Department of Justice, Barr has quickly turned from the ex-president since his resignation just before Christmas 2020. 

“We have information that between the Department of Justice, a plan was put forward to potentially seize voting machines in the country and utilize Department of Defense assets to make that happen,” Thompson told CBS News’ Margaret Brennan.

Mark your calendars: Thompson says the 1/6 panel will hold public hearings on its findings “this spring”.

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O Solo Mio -- Silvio Berlusconi, 85, Italian media tycoon and four-time Italian prime minister, a man who was convicted of tax fraud in 2013, who has been involved in several sex scandals (e.g., he was convicted of paying an underaged prostitute for sex in 2013, which was overturned on appeal in 2014), dropped out of the Italian election for president Saturday. According to Politico, it is reported that Berlusconi is presently hospitalized.

Note: This from Politico’s Pietro Lombardi pretty much says it all: “His insistence on running, and strong-arming his allies into supporting him, had blocked negotiations on an alternative candidate that could secure cross-party support. Even Prime Minister Mario Draghi, the most-qualified candidate, saw his path obstructed by Berlusconi’s campaign.”

--Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Nic Woods

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Scroll down to read the center column, “Biden Breaks Build Back Better.” New comments by Jim McCraw on the left and Bryan Williams on the right are on this page.

Pivot to the Center

By Bryan Williams 

How can President Biden turn around his presidency in year two? 

I have some quick ideas: Pivot to the center ala Bill Clinton in ’96. And stop this nonsense about voting rights and threatened elections. Biden is starting to sound like Trump. President Biden, did you see the election results in Georgia last January and November? You won the state and your party swept the senatorial elections.

I don’t think Democrats have any problems voting in Georgia or anywhere else in the U.S. – and guess what? Not many Americans care about you and your party’s big elections push.

While you’re at it, President Biden, fire Ron Klain, your chief of staff. He listens to extremists on Twitter and is far too enamored with their attention to him. Maybe hire someone from Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) office to lead your staff? That would help in your pivot to the center.

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Scroll down to read the center column for this debate; “Biden Breaks Build Back Better.” To add your comments to this page, email editors@thehustings.news

Biden Must Move Past His Agenda

By Eric Blair

To hear the self-appointed media prognosticators, President Biden might as well step down from the office he assumed just a year ago, as he is being universally panned for his performance (remember when presidents’ actions were called policy, not performance? Reagan- of Bedtime for Bonzo fame- might have changed all that) to date. Despite a fusillade of acerb impugning his stutter, his sanity and his stoicism, Biden has “shown up” and done an admirable job with the hand he was dealt by the unscrupulous card sharks that form the opposition party.

At his approximately two-hour long press conference marking the first anniversary of his presidency, Biden fielded questions ranging across the foreign and domestic landscape, while still maintaining a view to the future of what needs to be done for a country addled with a pandemic and a political climate of equal toxicity and virulence. The President asked the inquiry for the ages: What are the Republicans for? 

A charitable response would be to say it is reflexive and perpetual obscurantism and opposition to anything on the Democratic agenda, merely for being what the Dems are offering (with the exception of begrudging and perfunctory resolutions marking the heritage du mois. 

At worst, the GOP has shown itself to possess a near criminal disregard for the well-being of the American people, arguably complicit, even directing in some quarters the subversion of American democracy through insurrections and voter suppression efforts.

Biden cannot expect much from the Republicans, who have been notably disciplined and united in their collective malevolence. But wither the Democrats, some, like Senators Sinema and Manchin who could rightly be sued for copyright infringement for improperly bearing the party affiliation? And what of the progressives, who fought the good fight for their desired issues in the Build Back Better agenda that is dead on arrival? 

Presidents no longer have the luxury to consider a full, one-term agenda, let alone ponder reelection. While the White House offers four-year leases, Washington now works around the calendar of Congress and its two-year blocks. All attention is on the midterms, and a political party that once prided itself as being the experts on U.S. foreign policy has ignored the impending threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, the continuing rise of China as the dominant global power, and oh yes, a pandemic that continues to wreak havoc on Americans and a normal rhythm of life.

Biden the realist refuses to be enslaved by the thought of legacy; James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson and Biden’s predecessor have ensured the medal podium of presidential ignominy is already filled. The 46th president is conscious that merely shepherding the nation through the post-Trump chaos, Covid and a depraved opposition is not enough. He will have to curb the appetites of progressives, who should wake up to the reality that America was never as progressive as they thought it was or urged it to be. He needs to remind Americans that the economy is still strong; inflation could be reduced if Covid disruptions are minimized, something that can occur if the vaccination rate and masking protocols are increased. As the country hurtles toward another contentious election season, Biden must appeal directly to the American people, without intercessors of questionable reliability from his own party, a media that fetishizes alarmism or certainly a hostile, depraved GOP. He can and still has time to make his case in his comfort zone: As folksy Uncle Joe, now that he knows that no one seems to care about whether any legislative agenda, his or anyone else’s makes it to the Resolute Desk this year.

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Please email your comments on President Biden’s year in office ahead to editors@thehustings.news
(Posted FRI 1/21/22)